JetBlue 20% off Sale

JetBlue is offering a tasty 20% off until tomorrow, Aug. 27th. For travel through Dec. 18, but not for Thanksgiving. Looks like they're limiting the seats for this promo, so get on it.

Click here to get the details.

If you're planning on flying in the US in the next couple months, this is a good one to know about.

It would, however, be irresponsible of me not to remind you that you must weigh traveling on JetBlue against any potential status you may be close to achieving with one of the big airlines. At this time of year, if you're close, I'd say skip any savings on JetBlue and stick with your primary airline. Status is worth it, even if only for the special elite line at security, which can save you tons of time.

Thanks again, Christopher for tipping me off to the TheFlightDeal.com. I now subscribe to their daily deal alert and that's where I got this one.

Le business class for le steal!

My freelanceafarian friend Troy just tipped me off to this INSANE deal:

TWO business class roundtrips from NY to Paris for:

$2014.00

That's not a typo. That's a grand each, roundtrip, to sleep comfortably between two of the world's best cities.

A new airline called La Compagnie is doing it to promote their new all-business flights between Newark and Paris. 

Here's the link to the deal itself:

https://www.lacompagnie.com/en/node/107#discover-our-launch-offer-duo-promotion

This is très urgent, friends: you must book by August 30th and complete your trip by September 15th.

The seats look quite good. Plenty of room, with a 2 - 2 configuration in the cabin. Described as 180-degree recline, which usually means that the seat is flat but you're not. Who cares? For this price, you can deal with sleeping at a slight angle (or just set it in the la-z-boy position). A couple glasses of vin rouge and you'll be toasting your bargain-genius-self. 

TWO of these for two grand!!   https://www.lacompagnie.com/en/our-offer

New Yorkers, get on this and report back to me.

People elsewhere: if you're within reasonable range of New York, it would make sense to fly to Newark and connect to this airline for a crazy cheap, luxury trip.

That's all for aujourd'hui. Bon voyage!

What's a yapta?

Are you planning your next adventure, like I told you to?

Then you need to know about yapta.com

Ignore how hideous the homepage is. You're going to love this thing.

Let me show you.

When you're planning a flight, start on the homepage and click on "flights" (with the gray airplane icon) toward the bottom left of your screen.

Click on "Flights," in blue, toward the bottom.

Then enter whatever flight you want to search. It's powered by kayak.com, so you get all kinds of easy levers and controls to adjust your search. But THEN comes the good stuff. You can choose "Track price drops." Look for it below each flight option.

Click on the orange "Track price drops."

Why are you going to love this? Three reasons.

One, if you go ahead and buy your flight, you will be alerted if the price drops. Granted, most airlines charge an extortionate $200 change fee now (except our beloved jetblue, who only charge $75) BUT, if your flight drops more than the cost of a change fee, VOILA, you call up that airline and get yourself a nice little refund or credit. 

Two, if you're not ready to buy your flight for whatever reason, yapta will be back there tracking it and alerting you when it drops. Let's say you're looking to fly somewhere and you have an idea of what you want to pay or what it should cost. Yapta is fantastic for that. You can wait to pull the trigger until it hits the price you want (no guarantees, but see point Three, next).

A yapta email alert.

Three, you end up learning something about how volatile flight prices really are. Go to the site anytime and click on the "my trips" button to see prices on all your tracked flights. 

Go to "My Trips" to see a snapshot of all your tracking.

Over the years, for example, I've learned that NY - Miami prices fluctuate a lot. By hundreds of dollars in the course of a week sometimes. Often (though not always), those prices come back to a certain baseline about a week before. If you've got a city-pair that you travel often, this is good intel. 

And intel is KEY to maxing out your adventure potential.

See? I told you you'd love this thing.

Got planes tonight?

It's time to put your spontaneity to the test. My friend Bianca just alerted me to an article on mashable.com today about a new app. The name says it all:

FlightTonight

It's an app that serves up a tantalizing list of flight deals for tonight — like right now tonight. (And some for the next day.) You just set your home airport and boom, there you go.

Better start bringing our passports to work. 

Get the app here:

http://bit.ly/1xs2eGm

I want a report from the first reader who travels on one of these!

Get a Fucking Passport

If you don’t have one, get a fucking passport. And don’t come back to this site until you do.

Seriously.

Derek, this one’s for you.

This is not about reversing Americans’ shameful lack of interest in anything outside our borders. No one can put a dent in that mass inanity.

This is for your own sake. For you to GET OUT THERE and see what the world is all about. Take the leap.

http://travel.state.gov/content/passports/english/passports/new.html

TWO WEEKS VACATION IS BULLSHIT

Demand more of it. Unless you’re a French or German worker, I can guarantee you’re not getting enough vacation time from your employer. 

Because two weeks is bullshit. 

Unless you’re in your very first job, where you really don’t have a lot of leverage, there is no excuse for accepting such an inhumane amount of time off. When I’m traveling in other countries, people literally choke whenever I tell them that two weeks off is standard in the U.S. How can we survive, they ask? How indeed.

Next time you’re negotiating a new job, or even a review at your current job, play hardball when it comes to vacation. Giving you more time off doesn’t really cost an employer that much. And no one’s going to miss you for an extra week off. Yet one extra week off can make a huge difference for you and your yearly adventure possibilities. Don’t let the HR lady fool you: there IS wiggle room, regardless of your title (I have proven this time and again when negotiating staff jobs).

Here’s one of my favorite commentators, Bill Maher, ranting perfectly about Americans’ outrageous lack of vacationing:

Oh, and if it isn’t obvious to you: the idea is to TAKE the vacation time you have. Nothing is more tragic than people not using all of their vacation days.

A VISIT ≠ A VACATION

A visit is when you go somewhere to visit family.

A visit ≠ a vacation. 

Unless your relatives have moved somewhere abroad, time in the family bubble does not count as a vacation. We all have family we want to spend time with; just don’t confuse it with vacation time.

A vacation is a soul-nourishing time of joy, discovery, and optional debauchery. Where your only obligation is to yourself: inspiring yourself, relaxing yourself, and returning yourself to the naturally curious, open, fun-loving person you are meant to be.

Everyone has family obligations. Just don’t burn all your vacation time fulfilling them.

* Exception to this rule: a family wedding abroad does count as a vacation. 

Thank you to my friend Becky for elucidating this very important distinction.

STAYCATIONS

Do I even need to say anything here?